Judges should not use Facebook, must work like hermits: Supreme Court
Supreme Court advises judges to live like hermits, avoid social media, and refrain from commenting on legal issues. Learn about the court's emphasis on disciplined lifestyles for judicial officers and the case involving dismissed judges.
FollowThe importance of judges leading disciplined lifestyles has been emphasised by the Supreme Court, which has advised them to abstain from social media and to hold back from sharing their personal views on legal issues. Judges should live "like hermits" and labour "like horses," according to a bench made up of Justices B V Nagarathna and N Kotiswar Singh. They should also refrain from making personal remarks on rulings.
"Judicial officers should not go to Facebook. They should not comment on judgements because tomorrow, if the judgement is cited, the judge has already expressed one way or the other. It is an open platform," news agency PTI quoted the bench as saying during oral observations.
The top court emphasised the sacrifice required for judicial service when it stated, "There is no place for flamboyance in the judiciary." The comments were made during the hearing of a case in which the Madhya Pradesh High Court dismissed two female judges for allegedly doing poorly during their probationary periods.
The bench commented on the risks associated with judges' use of social media when the court discovered that one of the dismissed justices had posted something on Facebook. Reiterating the court's concerns, senior counsel R Basant, who was defending one of the dismissed judges, said that no judge or judicial official should share anything about their job on social media.
The court's remarks were a part of a larger debate about the issue of six female civil judges who were dismissed earlier this year by the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
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The Supreme Court had taken cognisance of the dismissal of six women civil judges on a performance basis on November 11, 2023. On August 1, a full court of the Madhya Pradesh High Court decided to reinstate four of them - Jyoti Varkade, Sushri Sonakshi Joshi, Sushri Priya Sharma, and Rachna Atulkar Joshi - on certain terms. The other two judges were left out of the exercise, which is being considered by the Supreme Court.
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